In the crazy euphoria of a historic racing moment, Patrice Wolfson stood in her box at Belmont Park on Saturday evening, soaking up the emotion and, like the rest of us, trying to digest what had just happened: American Pharoah, dominating almost from the start, had become the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown.

The last thoroughbred to do it had been Wolfson’s gem of a horse, Affirmed, in 1978.

As American Pharoah opened up an insurmountable lead in the Belmont Stakes, celebrations erupted everywhere.

“I was so happy,” Wolfson said before pausing midsentence to glance over as security, seeming to appear from nowhere, cleared a path for Bill Clinton to leave the box.

After Clinton left and relative calm was restored, Wolfson completed her thought about the history that had just unfolded.

“The fans got what they wanted; we’ve all waited 37 years for this,” she said. “I never thought it would take so long.”

When Wolfson left the track in 1978, she never imagined that not until three-plus decades and five presidents later would she see another Triple Crown.

I asked Wolfson how long it had taken for the reality of winning a Triple Crown to settle in. She smiled. “It hasn’t to this day,” she said. “It was such a feat, such an achievement.”

I asked how she would like to see American Pharoah’s owners use the horse’s newfound status.

“I would hope he would run as a 4-year-old,” she said. “Let’s hope.”

(Asked about the horse’s future, the owner Ahmed Zayat said, “He will probably retire at the end of this year.”)

As Wolfson walked into the trustees’ room, she went over to the table where the former jockey Steve Cauthen was seated.

In 1978, Cauthen was the 18-year-old wonder who rode Affirmed to victory over Alydar in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont.

Cauthen, obviously, has paid close attention to the army of talented Triple Crown hopefuls who have come to Belmont with aspirations of making history only to fall short.

“They faded for whatever reasons,” he said. “Big Brown had an off day; I’ll Have Another didn’t make it to the race; a couple of them just got caught in the last furlong because they ran out of stamina.”

American Pharoah never wavered, never faltered.

Cauthen said he had listened carefully to how the veteran trainer Bob Baffert spoke about American Pharoah. From those comments, Cauthen felt that Baffert, who has had his share of heartbreak at Belmont, sensed he had a horse who had the key to the Triple Crown lock.

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Steve Cauthen atop Affirmed after winning the 1978 Preakness Stakes.

“He’s had a lot of great horses, but he talked about this one like he’s in a different league than even the other great horses he’s had,” Cauthen said. “You could just tell that he held this horse in a higher esteem.”

I’m always intrigued by the reactions of great athletes who see their accomplishments and long-held records challenged, matched or broken. When Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s career home run record, Aaron was gracious, noting that records were made to be broken.

I asked Cauthen how he felt about watching the winning jockey, Victor Espinoza, move into the historic station Cauthen had occupied for 37 years.

“It’s been a great ride,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it to last this long. All that it did was prove how tough it is to do.”

Cauthen said he had never rooted against a horse going for a Triple Crown.

“But I wanted a good horse to do it, and today that happened,” he said.

After years of going to Belmont, anticipating a Triple Crown winner only to leave without seeing history made, I wondered how I’d react if the feat were achieved on my watch. Or if it would ever be.

We all found out shortly after 6:50 p.m. Saturday when a 3-year-old colt, a 43-year-old jockey and a 62-year-old trainer raced into history. In the process, they offered the strongest argument yet against changing the Triple Crown format.

Some reporters discreetly applauded, some slapped high-fives and one or two even cried as they wrote their stories.

I had become convinced that the Triple Crown, like Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak and Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, was something we would never see again.

Those elusive milestones remain the lure of sports. For all of the darkness — the back-room corruption, the misconduct, the entitlement — moments like these are what we dream of but can never predict.

Racing still has its dark side, though: In the fourth race on Saturday, the colt Helwan was euthanized on the track.

After Cauthen won in 1978, he looked back on the relatively short intervals between Triple Crown victories and thought the feat might have become too easy.

Wolfson walked away from the Belmont in 1978 with no idea that she would be the reigning Triple Crown-winning owner for the next 37 years.

On Saturday, I asked Wolfson how she felt about being replaced, or at the very least joined, in history by Zayat.

Wolfson smiled and reminded me that Affirmed’s place in history was etched in stone.

“He’s still the 11th winner of the Triple Crown,” she said. “It’s just another person being added to the club, and it’s an exclusive club.”

Email: wcr@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on , Section D, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Affirmed’s Owner and Jockey Salute Their Successors . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe